by Brian Brady
Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL
We’re covering the launch of Trulia Voices with great interest on Bloodhound Blog. Greg took the lead this morning with his initial analysis and I lauded Trulia for appearing to be the more Realtor-friendly choice over Zillow.com.
I started tinkering in the Trulia Voices section. This is where people can ask questions about real estate issues on a national, regional, local, and hyper-local level. I am particularly interested in the Financing section and the cities of San Diego, Phoenix, and Long Beach, CA.
I’m no expert on the Fair Housing Act. However, like Justice Potter Stewart commented on pornography, “I don’t know how to define it but I know it when I see it.”. These questions seemed particularly disconcerting to me on Trulia Voices:
Any red flags I should know about?
There are a lot of listings in Maryvale on Trulia and the prices seem great. What are the downsides to living in this area?
What areas in Phoenix are best for raising kids?
You’ll notice that Jay Thompson, the Phoenix Real Estate Guy, does an excellent job at answering this question.
Where are the best places to buy in Phoenix for a young family?
Would love to learn about an affordable area with great parks and entertainment options for a 30-something couple with young kids. Nothing too suburban, but obviously safety
counts!
Is Orlando good for families with children?
Why or why not?
San Francisco? I think we have a problem. My interpretation of the Fair Housing Act leads me to believe that a professional could get themselves into VERY hot water by answering those questions. I think the Trulians would explain that the questions are REAL and indicative of how REAL people (read: consumers) talk. The questions seem to have been posted by employees of Trulia This leads me to wonder if the Trulians are bigoted bastards or just ignorant of how real estate brokerage really works.
Harsh Criticism? Perhaps…I think if you create a site which relies upon participation from real estate brokerages and you host potential traps for employees of those brokerages, you are culpable. The organizations that sue for damages for violations of the Fair Housing Act might name me, a San Diego mortgage broker, in litigation but they will certainly go after the deeper pockets of Trulia for facilitating a forum for “bigoted bastards”.
This is my comment from this morning:
I love the opportunity Zillow offers but wonder if they are the biker chick who will take off to Mexico leaving us broken-hearted. I know Redfin will ride this sugardaddy until he’s broke then move onto the next sucker. Trulia might just be the gal you marry. Let’s see how this plays out.
And this is what I think, now:
Even “perfect” gals have skeletons in their closet.
Let’s hope Trulia fixes this one quickly. Your comments, interpretations, and criticism is welcome and solicited.
Jay Thompson says:
Brain – Indeed I cringed when I saw those questions this morning. And judging from past visitors to my blog, I’m virtually certain the questions were posted by Trulia employees – “seeding” the site so to speak.
Some agent, looking to jump into this thing is going to get themselves in a world of hurt if they aren’t careful. The only reason I even considered answering these questions was to test the system. Normally I’d skip over something like that (as I did with the question on Maryvale — I’m not about to touch that one!)
These questions *are* precisely like what many will ask. But that doesn’t mean that’s how Trulia should be seeding the site…. and short of “approving” every question prior to making them public, I don’t know how they can stop them.
Agents need to be very, very careful……
May 11, 2007 — 2:39 pm
Brian Brady says:
“Agents need to be very, very careful”
Exactly, Jay. I commented on a crime question in Pacific Beach. I spent 10-15 minutes soliciting opinion from executives in our firm. I crafted a very bland answer with a link to a yahoo crime stats site. Then, I though…”Why the hell risk this in print?”
I’m pretty certain that Trulia just didn’t think this one through.
May 11, 2007 — 2:46 pm
Hmmm says:
Ummm, the one thing I noticed is that there is a “flagging” feature. As a broker I recommend you just “flag” down, sort of like “Digg” anything you think is dangerous, and perhaps show what a good Agent/Broker/Realtor(c) you are, by answering something like,”This question is potentially violating fair housing violations, and lends itself to bigotry, perhaps no one should answer it – Flag this down” I dunno, just an idea. The flags must be there for a reason no?
May 11, 2007 — 3:30 pm
Jonathan Dalton says:
I started answering one then realized I enjoy having my license far too much.
Trulia’s not alone in this, incidentally. Active Rain has a Q&A section which is a font of debatable legal opinion and other such fun. It seems like many consumers are going there to ask the question they ought to be asking their agent – if they had an agent. I assume in most cases they do not.
Get the benefits without any of the cost.
If nothing else, the questions can serve as an IQ test for real estate agents. If you’re dumb enough to jump on the hand grenade, you likely deserve to get blown up.
May 11, 2007 — 3:33 pm
Brian Brady says:
“Active Rain has a Q&A section which is a font of debatable legal opinion and other such fun”
That function is a nightmare waiting to happen. Realtors and originators, whom I’ve never seen post anything on Active Rain are dispensing dangerous and inaccurate advice.
May 11, 2007 — 4:33 pm
Laurie Manny says:
Active Rains’s Q & Ass is the best Soap Opera on the web! I am thrilled to have another to go to in bored moments when I need some serious entertainment. Do any of you remember the little paper package in the cracker jacks box? I swear the agents responding on these Q & Ass got their licenses there.
May 11, 2007 — 10:45 pm
William J Archambault Jr says:
Brian,
To Hell with “Bigoted Brasards” let them drowned in their own vile bile! My concern is the foolish and naive.
I listened with growing fascination to your Trulia pod cast, wondering how I might fit in, how I might profit from what sounded great. That is until they got to suggestion to REALTORS&174; how they could answer questions that have been out lawed since the mid seventies!
The truly “Bigoted Brasards” are going to carefully find their way to profit from such a forum. The honest ones are going to fail when an unknowing public gets three answers, and their’s was “I can answer that.” or irreverent. The stupid or overly naive are going answer and get prosecuted!
We all have to deal with Indian, service reps, it can be frustrating not because of they don’t know what they are talking about, but because of nuances in the language, based in India and California it appears that Trulia may suffer from the same malaise as the big call centers. I’d like to give them the benafit of the dought, but I don’t want assoiciated with them until I see how this works out!
Bill
William J Archambault Jr
The Real Estate Investment Institute
May 12, 2007 — 1:20 pm
Kelly Roark says:
All, Kelly from Trulia here. For the record, we stand by our commitment to HUD regulations. Just like in the offline world, online consumers may well ask a question to which a Realtor’s obvious, short answer might be construed as non-HUD compliant. We encourage Realtors to be as mindful of HUD rules online as they are offline, and shortly we will be posting further guidelines.
We want to make Trulia Voices a valuable place for Realtors to interact with prospective clients. After all, we are the ‘gal you just might end up marrying!’
Kelly Roark
VP, Industry Development
May 12, 2007 — 6:03 pm
William J Archambault Jr says:
Kelly,
This is the type of subtly mistakes that I was talking about. The Fair Housing Act is administered by HUD not the FHA. It is true that FHA is part of HUD, but being part of HUD does not necessary mean being involved with the FHA.
I know it’s splitting hairs but words do make a difference!
It’s those small differences that can get you convicted of a civil rights violation, even without sinister intent.
Bill
May 12, 2007 — 7:08 pm
Brian Brady says:
I’m pleased to see Kelly from Trulia here. Kelly, I think you’ll find some great advice from the likes of Jay Thompson, Jonathan Dalton, Bill Archambault, Laurie Manny and all of the Bloodhound Crew.
I’m pleased to see that Trulia is taking potential Fair Housing violations seriously.
May 12, 2007 — 10:16 pm
Brian Brady says:
I corrected it, Bill. I had an e-exchange with Kelly to highlight EXACTLY what you pointed out. Let’s see if we can guide Trulia through this mess and make them our ally.
If they choose to decline our sage advice, well, then that’s their choice.
May 12, 2007 — 10:58 pm
CJ, Broker in L A, CA says:
If Kelly is still reading … I don’t see any “Fair Housing” verbage or the little logo on Trulia, or any any CYA disclaimer language for that matter. Might not be a bad idea.
May 13, 2007 — 4:40 am
Heather @ Trulia says:
Hi BHB crew–I left the same message over on your AR post, but wanted to leave it here as well.
We are mindful of the comments posted and don’t want to remain silent on this topic for too long. We’re working on posting appropriate guidelines and disclaimers. As you can imagine, a lot of work went (and is still going) into Trulia Voices, and it may take us a few more days to implement. Thanks to you and everyone for the feedback!
May 15, 2007 — 4:41 pm
Brian Brady says:
“We are mindful of the comments posted and don’t want to remain silent on this topic for too long.”
I’m glad to see it, Heather! Trulia should attempt to take the lead in real estate search engines. You can do this by being friendly to brokers by insisting on complaince with the Fair Housing Act.
“We’re working on posting appropriate guidelines and disclaimers.”
That would be helpful. The Trulia employees “seeded” questions that have induced at least two licensees to violate the Fair Housing Act. I hope you delete them before some smart lawyer hammers those unsuspecting licensees.
May 15, 2007 — 5:41 pm
Brian Brady says:
Make no mistake about it, Trulia is the one mash-up realty.bot that is listening to its constituency. I wrote this provocative title to “bait” them to do better…and they have.
All too often, real estate search engines get caught up in the “we’re out to change the world and the stakeholders be damned!”. They try to change the way business is done because THEY believe it’s what the consumer wants. Mostly, they’re incorrect. Consumers like to see transparency in real estate brokerage but most of them just care to get a good loan and a fair shake when they sell their home.
Trulia is the most pragmatic mash-up tool I’ve seen to date.
May 18, 2007 — 8:41 pm
Carole Cohen says:
Just me chiming in that adding the fair housing logo to each page would be a very very good idea. I would suggest letting consumers do the seeding. They can’t get into trouble. Then it’s up to us professionals (lordy) to be…professional in our answers.
May 20, 2007 — 9:21 pm